How does this skill work with Illusionary Weaponry or Mist Form? Since they auto-miss, does it trigger every time? 71.245.104.242 22:31, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

does not work with IW, and idk about mist form Killer Revan 20:13, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Does not work with mist form either Paul 23:12, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

I believe both mist form and Illusionary Weaponry are worded to say "your attacks deal 0 damage" as opposed to "you fail to hit with your attacks", hence they do not trigger this skill. -- Frozzen 03:41, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

I have a question, is the damage inflicted when you miss three times with any attack or with an attack skill when you fail to hit 3 opponents? Fenrir dragonbone 11:27, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Not sure what you mean but this skill activates for every foe you fail to hit. Say you have 2 rangers w/block stances in front of you. They both block your attack. Shards would activate 2 times. so 25(dam)*2(failed hits) = 50 damage for every nearby foe. Done25 00:17, 4 May 2008 (UTC

Would have been godly before update with way of the empty palm+ death blossem spam+33%IAS(i just though of it.....now)--Ultima Flames 00:59, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Years late; the WotEP part is right, but the attack skill used with it was exhausting assault with it's 1/2 activation time and since failed skills due to failure in prematurely chaining assassin comboes don't go under recharge, you could keep spamming the exhausting assault button and 'fail's would appear rapidly on your screen while your enemies died. Since it only took two skills to accomplish such a feat you had plenty of room and energy for cover enchants as well as the old 1/4 cast pious restoration so nothing could stop you. Zencow 09:05, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

is it really a good idea to start listing which skills dont synergise well with other skills? If we start that we'll be at it all year! IMHO that bit of the note should be removed as its needless as understanding of how IW works should be enough to understand that it wont work with this skill. -- Salome 01:20, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

It is an obvious combination and one that, due to inaccuracies in descriptions, is not so obviously not working. Keeping the note shares the knowledge and may thus save people time experimenting, thus it's good use of webspace. Amy Awien 19:46, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

this skill does suck because it was tripple nerfed, anet didn't simply fix the dagger abuse, no they turned this skill into shit as well and that means this skill is not worth using in pve and in pvp either. is that intended ? who knows but either way its damn stupid :p

I don't know about you, but I often look up common skills such as this one (and check the talk page) because it can give me tips on how I might use the skills, give me possible synergies that I would've NEVER thought of (never been THAT great at coming up with builds), and indeed, it does save me a lot of experimentation time.

Does this kill annoying Shadow Form users in random arena or certain Faction missions? Seems like it would be pretty cool. - 144.226.230.37 21:13, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I would assume so. Shadow Form makes you miss, which would be failing to hit, and AoE damage isn't mitigated by Shadow Form. (Aiiane - talk - contribs) 21:15, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

i just added that note about shadow form cause its something that annoys lots of people, if your a dervish you could take this skill just for those pesky shadows

I disagree with the note for two reasons. First, it's not particularly effective for 'killing' Shadow Form users. It's a way around it, but on it's own it doesn't do enough damage to pose a serious threat. Second, if it's going to be specifically noted that it can be used to damage Shadow Form users, it's equally valid to note that it can be used to damage Whirling Defense users, and Shield Stance users, and Bonetti's Defense users, and Blinding Surge users, and Aegis teams, etc. The basic description of the skill already includes the reason why it's effective against Shadow Form - it punishes your opponent for making you fail to hit. I guess if everyone agrees it should stay I'll back off, but if no one argues that it should, I'll remove it sometime this week. --Belker 22:37, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

well, you do have a point, but the fact that SF makes you invulnerable to everything except AoE damage (and since AoE damage only works if it is PBAoE or a foe stands next to that SF user), skills that actively damage SF users should be noted. However, I have to agree with you that it isn't very effective at killing SF users, but then again, its probably the most effective (with AoE having such long recharge and not many people bringing PBAoE).Crimmastermind 06:19, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it does come into effect with Illusionary Weaponry if you're using a scythe. Similar to how Feigned Nutrality and Dark Escape can be kept up even though they end on successful attack. ~ Chao 19:34, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

"Anomoly: In addition to preventing damage, melee attacks made while under the effects of Illusionary Weaponry are not considered to hit, miss or fail to hit." 209.240.183.45 23:03, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

It seems typeless, yes. It bypasses armor, but not direct damage reduction, and is not doubled on the undead. That cuts out pretty much every type of damage except maybe shadow damage, which is basically a synonym for typeless anyway. --Jette 14:06, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Skill deals Earth damage I assume. It is no longer armor-ignoring (tested in Isle of the Nameless) and now completely and utterly blows. It at least had one use in the game, and that was the Derv raptor farming build. Now I dont see it having any use.--98.109.81.49 23:41, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Not bad since it's nearby damage. But we need to find out if it actually deals earth damage. I really wish it was armor ignoring :/ KarateJesus23:50, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

It is earth, used on a ranger and did about 8 damage per pulse at 10 earth prayers. Frosty 01:17, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

It's at your location, good for shrugging off aggro. 76.84.34.210 02:07, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Why would a dervish want to shrug off aggro?--Glory 03:14, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

NOOOOOOOOoooooooo! This was one of my favourite skills for getting around block and miss chances as a Dervish! 220.253.186.99 04:02, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

This skill is interesting now. I like it. <>96.8.185.183 04:18, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Dervish takes a role of an elementalist, as Shard's skill of the day says ^^ - J.P.Talk 04:36, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Anet is really smart. Goes and furtherly buffs the most overpowered class in game with this. GREAT! Before this update, i H/Hed HM Gate of Madness. Today on my ele, i got ass-raped by 2 dervish titans using this skill. Awesome. Y don't u make it even more spammable? -Mickey.

Contemplating sliding this onto a W/D to play around with it... but I notice the 0 investment yeilding half damage already... how much would ya throw into this skill? MrPaladintalk 13:23, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Recently looked at this skill and it says, "30 seconds, Sand Shards ends early if you use an attack skill". Is this just wording error? Shouldn't it read "For 30 Seconds, Sand Shards does nothing. Sand Shards ends early if you use an attack skill"? 75.59.244.183

It doesn't need to say that it does nothing, it's actually fairly redundant for the skills that do. --Kyoshi(Talk) 05:56, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Just pointing out the obvious. -- 76.181.167.16 19:10, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Isn't it also obvious that this is a dervish skill, meaning a melee character can take it and still have a secondary class? Isn't it also obvious that you could actually use both? 86.147.4.58 22:22, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

The most obvious thing I see is splinter is simply better. Sand Shards in HM is not very useful. -- 76.181.167.16 23:52, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

How about the fact that Splinter Weapon is limited to 3 enemies hit per trigger, while Sand Shards isn't? Guildwarsrunner 02:13, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

They do the same thing but being in a melee profession it allows a dervish to do aoe damage. And ofcourse it can be combined with Splinter. There is no bettter or worse scenario. --frostels 02:16, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

How about using this with cracked armor, the dervish can inflict that now, even with a teardown enchantment in the same attribute. This plus staggering force pluse eremite's attack for example. Lou Wolfskin 15:25, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, I agree, the way Vow of Strength and Sand Shards bounce around damage with multiple scythe targets, it's just CRAZY! I'm liking and abusing it right now until the next update comes. :3 Shadow Knight 05:52, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

I think you guys are forgetting that Sand Shards does not do anything if you are attacking only one foe (hence the words "OTHER adjacent foes" in the skill description), whereas Splinter Weapon inflicts damage on ALL adjacent foes.

Uh, Splinter Weapon doesn't do anything when you're attacking only one target, either. Read the very first note on its page. "The damage is dealt only to targets adjacent to the target, not the target itself." Or something. 67.180.237.90 04:04, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

If you think splinter weapon is better your wrong. I use it on my bar and I only play in HM and it is better. Its damage is done to all foes, and activates on each hit. So its the same as splinter except its not limited to 3 adjacent foes. Its damage is even higher.--ChefStefan 05:35, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

lol... First, Sand Shards's damage is not "higher" since splinter weapon deals armour ignoring dmg and SS deals elemental dmg. It makes a BIG difference especially in HM. Second, most of the time you do not hit more than 3 adjacent foes unless a tanker always balls the mobs up. Third, you can cast splinter weapon on any of your allies, which gives spinter weapon more flexibility. For examples, if you are a ritualist, you can bring a barrage ranger hero with you. Or, if your character is a melee class, you can bring a ritualist hero so the hero can apply splinter weapon on you. Unlike Sand Shards, you do not have to be certain professions(or use certain weapons) to be able to receive the benefit from splinter weapon. 219.89.29.98 12:57, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

It would be nice if whenever a <skill-name>/Skill_history page exists for a skills page, the skill details box at top right automatically added a Skill history: <link> entry. The trivia section is really the wrong place for it, and adding the reference manually is really poor use of technology. Morgaine 08:07, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Is there a meta-page somewhere where such things can be discussed? Talking about it in the Sand Shards talk page is clearly not useful. ;-) Morgaine 08:10, 20 February 2011 (UTC)